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Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Goa’s Sagar Mule to participate in “Mann Ki Baat@100“ National Conclave
Panaji | 25th April 2023
To mark the 100th episode of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s 'Mann Ki Baat’ monthly address, Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is organizing a National Conclave on "Mann Ki Baat@100" at New Delhi on 26th April 2023. The Conclave will be graced by Shri Jagdeep Dhankar, Hon'ble Vice President of India, in the presence of Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Hon'ble Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports. Goa’s very own Shri Sagar Naik Mule will be among the select invitees to the National Conclave.
The National Conclave will bring together around 100 esteemed citizens from various parts of the country whose names have been mentioned by the Hon'ble Prime Minister in the previous episodes of "Mann Ki Baat". These individuals have made remarkable contributions towards nation building, as recognized by the Prime Minister in his monthly broadcasts. Shri. Sagar Naik Mule young Kaavi artist from Ponda, Goa will be among those participating in the conclave. The Goan Artist’s efforts to preserve Kaavi art was praised by the Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat address in December, 2021.
In the 84th edition of Mann Ki Baat, delving into the history of the art form, PM Modi told his listeners the ‘Kaava’ meant red soil and that in ancient times, red clay was used in the painting. He said, however, with the passage of time, people have forgotten about the significance of the painting and the art form has been on the verge of extinction. PM Modi commended the young artist for his efforts to preserve the art form and infuse a new lease of life to this art. He also urged the people of the country to make small efforts to preserve the ancient arts.
During the inaugural session, the Hon'ble Vice President will release two books. The first book is a coffee table book on "Mann Ki Baat@100", which highlights the journey of the program and its transformative impact in fostering direct communication between the Prime Minister and the citizens. The second book, titled "Collective Spirit, Concrete Action" by Shri S.S. Vempati, former CEO of Prasar Bharati, documents the diverse themes covered by PM Modi's conversations in 'Mann Ki Baat', encompassing social, economic, environmental, cultural, health, and fitness issues that resonate with the heart of the nation.
The National Conclave will also feature four sessions, each highlighting the wide-ranging themes of Prime Minister's interactions during 'Mann Ki Baat'. These sessions will be facilitated by eminent panels and will showcase the empowering effect of 'Mann Ki Baat' in connecting citizens directly with the Prime Minister and inspiring them to become agents of change.
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Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to GoI
Planning Meeting on G20-Chief Science Advisers Roundtable  Organised by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India
The planning meeting of the G20-Chief Science Advisers Roundtable  was held on Friday, January 20, 2023, in online mode, to discuss the agenda topics and planning for the proposed high-level roundtables.
Dr  Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary at the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, chaired the meeting. Senior officials representing Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands , Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States participated and provided their comments & suggestions on the topics of mutual interest for this initiative.
One Health, Open Access to Scholarly Scientific Knowledge, Emerging Technologies, and Scientific Data Sharing are indicative sets of agenda topics for G20-CSAR that emerged during the discussion.
G20-CSAR is a government-to-government level initiative conceptualised through India’s G20-Presidency. The motivation of this initiative is to bring together the Chief Science Advisers and their equivalents of G20 member countries, as well as the invited countries, to deliberate upon and develop collaborative frameworks for some of the common pressing global science and technology  policy issues. This initiative will also help in establishing an effective and coherent global science advice mechanism.

These G20-CSA roundtables will be an effective platform to discuss and achieve solutions to some of the long pending as well as anticipated issues related to scientific research, technology development and deployment. The G20-CSAR initiative will complement and cross-feed into other working groups and initiatives under the larger G20 framework.

“By convening G20 Chief Science Advisers Roundtable, we would like to achieve an effective institutional arrangement to discuss global S&T policy issues which can evolve into an effective and coherent global science advice mechanism; and solutions to some, if not all, of the transboundary issues faced by the global S&T ecosystem.,” highlighted Dr Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary at the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, in the meeting.

During India’s G20 presidency, two high-level G20-CSAR meetings will be organised – the 1st G20-CSAR during 26-28 March 2023 at Hyderabad and the 2nd G20-CSAR during 27-29 Aug 2023 at Bengaluru.
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
Misuse of Aadhaar Card
Targeted Public Distribution System  is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and State/UT Governments. Central Govt. is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation of foodgrains upto the designated depots of the FCI. The operational responsibilities for allocation and distribution of foodgrains within the States/UTs, identification of eligible beneficiaries/families, issuance of ration cards to them and supervision and monitoring of functioning of Fair Price Shops  rest with the concerned State/UT Government.
Some complaints/reports of malpractices involving use of Aadhaar during the distribution of subsidised foodgrains in States/UTs have been reported to this Department. The details of actions taken by States/UTs, as per reports available in this Department, are as follows:-
Action taken against FPSs in States/UTs :-
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No. of districts
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Total number of Aadhaar cards misused
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Total No. of FIR lodged in the districts
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Total No. of FPSs suspended
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Total No. of FPSs Cancelled
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43
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859
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517
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557
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984
Action taken against officers / employees in States/UTs :-
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No. of employees involved
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Departmental action taken
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Suspension of employees
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07
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03
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04
This information was given in a written reply by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Danve Raosaheb Dadarao in the Lok Sabha today.
Ministry of Electronics & IT
Online conference under chairmanship of Union IT Minister to be organized to mark 3 Years of UMANG
UMANG’s international version to be launched during the conference for selected countries;
The international version of App will help Indian international students, NRIs and Indian tourists abroad, to avail services of Indian Government, anytime
To mark the occasion of 3 years of UMANG and 2000+ services milestone, an online conference is being organized under the chairmanship of Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, the UnionMinister for Electronics and Information Technology, Communications and Law & Justice on 23.11.2020 at 16.00 Hrs with the objective to take suggestions/feedback from about 20 partner departments. The key partners of UMANG are Employee Provident Fund Organization, Direct Benefit Transfer scheme departments, Employee State Insurance Corporation, Ministries of Health, Education, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Staff Selection Commission . In coordination with Ministry of External Affairs, UMANG’s international version will be launched during the conference for select countries that include USA, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. It will help Indian international students, NRIs and Indian tourists abroad, to avail Government of India services, anytime. It will also help in taking India to the world through ‘Indian Culture’ services available on UMANG and create interest amongst foreign tourists to visit India.
The UMANG mobile app  is a Government of India all-in-one single, unified, secure, multi-channel, multi-lingual, multi-service mobile app. providing access to high impact services of various organizations of Centre and States.
UMANG was developed by National e-Governance Division , Ministry of Electronics & IT. It was dedicated to the Nation on November 23, 2017, by ourPrime Minister with 163 services. Within a short period of its successful implementation, UMANG attained four illustrious awards including ‘Best m-Government service’ award at the 6th World Government Summit held at Dubai, UAE in Feb 2018.
In complete resonance with Digital India’s vision of “Power to Empower”, the aim to develop UMANG was to enable ‘Ease of Living’ for Citizens by facilitating simple and effortless access to major Government services from a single mobile app.
UMANG has now grown to provide 2039 services  and the count is galloping ahead!
The UMANG Mobile app is available on Android, iOS, all web browsers platforms and select 80 services on KaiOS . UMANG has reached a level of more than 3.75 crore downloads and ~2.5 crore registered users while maintaining an average Play Store rating of >4 from more than 136 K users.
The UMANG App can be downloaded by giving a missed call on 97183-97183 and is available for downloading from the following links:
- Web: https://web.umang.gov.in/web/#/
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.gov.umang.negd.g2c
- iOS: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/umang/id1236448857
Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Statement by Shri Piyush Goyal at the WTO 12th Ministerial Conference in the Thematic Session on WTO Reform
Following is the text of the Statement made by the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal at the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Geneva during the Thematic Session on WTO Reform:
"We are all agreed that the primary objective of the WTO is to serve as the mechanism through which international trade can become the means for supporting economic development of Members, particularly the developing countries and the LDCs.
We need to accord priority to the reform needs especially to the crisis at the Appellate body, whose functioning should become more transparent and effective, the number of suggestions for reforming the WTO could result in fundamental changes in the institutional architecture thereby, running the risk of skewing the system against the interest of developing countries.
Therefore, the principles of non-discrimination, predictibilty, transparency very importantly, the tradition of decision making by consensus and the commitment to development underlying the multilateral trading system are sacrosant.
In all such reforms, we must ensure that multilateral rule making processes are neither bypassed nor diluted.
Special & Differential Treatment  is a treaty-embedded and non-negotiable right for all developing members. The gaps between the developing and developed members have not narrowed down in decades but in fact, have widened in many areas. S&D provisions, therefore, continue to be relevant.
India strongly supports a robust WTO reforms and modernization agenda that is balanced, inclusive and preserves the core principles of the current multilateral system. We should also agree to address the existing asymmetries implicit in the Uruguay Round agreements.
In conclusion, as I hear many members' interventions the sense I get is that most of us are suggesting that the reform process should take place in the General Council and its regular bodies, as the General Council has the authority to act on the behalf of the ministers and reforms discussions must not be held with the aim of undermining the authority of the existing bodies of the WTO."
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Doorstep Service for submission of Digital Life Certificate through Postman launched
Huge relief for pensioners to submit Life certificate while staying at home.
India Post Payments Bank, IPPB of Department of Posts & Meity have successfully launched the initiative of the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare: “Doorstep Service for submission of Digital Life Certificate through Postman”. The facility to submit life certificate online through Jeevan Pramaan Portal was launched by the Hon'ble Prime Minister in November, 2014 with the objective to provide a convenient and transparent facility to pensioners for submission of Life Certificate.
Ever since, DoPPW, under the able guidance of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions, has been leveraging technology year after year, to make the system seamless and more and more convenient for the elderly Pensioners.
In order to make this facility available across the country, DoPPW roped in the India Post Payments Bank  and utilise its huge network of Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks in providing doorstep facility to pensioners for submission of life certificate digitally.
IPPB has customized its Bank software and dovetailed the same with Jeevan Pramaan software of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology  and UIDAI, to provide DLC services at the doorstep of Pensioners. This facility shall be in addition to other facilities such as withdrawal of money from bank account etc. while sitting at home. IPPB is utilising its national network of more than 1,36,000 access points in Post Offices and more than 1,89,000 Postmen & Gramin Dak Sevaks with smart phones and biometric devices to provide Doorstep Banking Services. As a result a huge number of pensioners across the country shall be able to avail doorstep service through Postmen/ Gramin Dak Sevak, without visiting to bank branch or standing in a queue outside the bank branches.
In order to avail “doorstep service for submission of DLC” through IPPB, pensioners can get detailed information on ippbonline.com. It is a chargeable service and will be available to all Central Government Pensioners across the country irrespective of the fact their pension accounts are in different bank. The process to avail “doorstep service of DLC” through IPPB can be viewed @ Youtube and facebook of D/o Pension & Pensioners Welfare . In view of current pandemic, it is a huge relief for pensioners to submit Life certificate while staying at home.
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Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Update on status of Digital Portal for Crowd Funding and Voluntary Donations for Patients of Rare Diseases
120 patients suffering from rare diseases financially supported under the programme
11 Centers of Excellence identified to receive financial assistance from institutions under Corporate Social Responsibility scheme
The Department of Health and Family Welfare has launched a Digital Portal for Crowd Funding and Voluntary Donations for Patients of Rare Diseases in accordance with the mandate of the National Policy for Rare Diseases , 2021. The Digital Portal may be accessed through https://rarediseases.nhp.gov.in/ . Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to Department of Revenue for registration of Crowd Funding Portal for rare disease under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.
Financial assistance in respect of 120 patients has been released for treatment of patients suffering from rare diseases in accordance with the provisions of the NPRD, 2021. Centres of Excellence  have option to get financial assistance from other agencies/drugs manufacturers/Corporate sector under Corporate Social Responsibility scheme by signing of Memorandum of Understanding  with them. 11  CoEs have been identified till date.
The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
Prime Minister's Office
PM to inaugurate Dr. Ambedkar National Memorial at Alipur Road in Delhi tomorrow
On the eve of the birth anniversary of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Dr. Ambedkar National Memorial at 26, Alipur Road in Delhi on April 13th.
This is the place where Dr. Ambedkar attained Mahaparinirvana on 6th December 1956.
Dr. Ambedkar Mahaparinirvana Sthal at 26, Alipur Road, was dedicated to the Nation by Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India, in December 2003.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the memorial on March 21, 2016.
The memorial of Babasaheb Ambedkar, the creator of the Constitution of India has been given the shape of a book.
The museum at the memorial intends to create an immersive experience into the life of Dr. Ambedkar, and his contribution to India, through extensive use of static media, dynamic media, audio-visual content, and multimedia technologies.
A meditation hall has also been created. Toran Dwars, a Bodhi Tree, a musical fountain, and facade lighting are other important elements of the memorial.
Ministry of Power
Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana : Electrification of all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas of the country
Government issues guidelines to electrify leftover un-electrified households identified prior to Saubhagya
States and Union Territories sign MoUs with Central Government to ensure 24x7 power supply
The Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – Saubhagya in October, 2017 with the objective to achieve universal household electrification by providing electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas in the country. Under the scheme, as on 31.03.2019, all households were reported electrified by the States, except 18,734 households in Left Wing Extremist  affected areas of Chhattisgarh. Subsequently, seven States namely Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh reported that around 19.09 lakh un-electrified households, identified before 31.03.2019, which were unwilling earlier, have later on expressed willingness to get electricity connections.
In addition, Government of India have recently issued guidelines for electrification of any leftover un-electrified households identified before 31.03.2019 prior to Saubhagya for covering these under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme .
All the States and Union Territories  have signed MoUs with the Central Government to ensure 24x7 power supply to all households, industrial & commercial consumers and adequate supply of power to agricultural consumers w.e.f. 1st April, 2019 onwards.
This information was given by Shri R.K Singh, Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
Offshore Wind Energy in India
Shri R.K Singh, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy held a meeting today on transmission planning for offshore wind energy projects in India. Shri Alok Kumar, Secretary, Power and Shri Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy were present in the meeting.
During the meeting, transmission and evacuation infrastructure required for offshore wind projects of total capacity 10 GW off the coasts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, was discussed. A presentation on this was made to the Minister by the Central Transmission Utility .
After a detailed review, it was decided to bid out offshore wind energy blocks as per the following trajectory:
- Bids equivalent to a project capacity of 4.0 GW per year for a period of three years starting with the current FY 22-23 for development off the coast of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat for sale of power through open access / captive / bi-lateral third party sale / merchant sale
- Subsequently a project capacity of 5 GW will be bid out every year for a period of five years i.e. up till FY 29-30.
The project capacity of 8 GW bid out in the first two years beginning FY 22-23 will also be able to avail of the benefits of green attributes like carbon credits.
The bidding for the first 12 GW will be conducted on a single stage two envelope model wherein the bidders will be evaluated based on their techno-commercial capabilities and only the technically qualified bidders will proceed to financial evaluation. The financial evaluation will be based on quoted lease fee per sq km of sea bed area. The bidder offering the highest lease fee per sq km of sea bed area would be declared as the winner for allocation of the project.
Evacuation and transmission of power from offshore pooling Substation  to onshore transmission will be provided free of cost for all offshore wind capacities that will be bid out up to FY 29-30.
The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy through its implementing agency will issue the first bid in the next three – four months for leasing out offshore wind energy blocks equivalent to 4.0 GW capacity off the coast of Tamil Nadu.
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways
NHAI Agrees to 25 Suggestions Made by NHBF to Ease Highway Construction
In order to resolve issues and increase the pace of construction of highway projects, NHAI has agreed to most of the suggestions made by the National Highways Builders Federation  related to project delivery. The suggestions were made pertaining to nine areas that included Covid Relief, Bidding process, Contract Management, Old & New Model EPC agreements, Improvement of Concession Agreement of Hybrid Annuity Model , Improvement of Concession Agreement Based on BOT  and Project Preparation.
NHAI reportsthat the suggestions made by NHBF were deliberated upon by them for proper redressal and the Authority has agreed to 25 suggestions which were related to it. NHAI has also assured that all good suggestions shall be positively considered in future too.
NHAI has further reported that other suggestions pertaining to policy related matters have been sent to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for consideration. Some of the key suggestions accepted by NHAI are highlighted as below:
- With regard to Covid Relief, Extension of Time to contractor/ concessionaire for construction period without imposition of any cost or penalty shall be granted by the Project Director upto 3 months and Regional Officer for more than three months and up to six months.
- In order to enable the bidder to have an assessment of road condition at the time of bidding, NHAI shall provide DPR alongwith Network Survey Vehicle /LIDAR data as per availability to the bidders. All survey data collected by DPR consultants will be made available to agencies under one platform through Data Lake.
- To ensure timely payments to vendors and their monitoring, submission of bills related to project payments shall be done through PMS/Data Lake Portal.
NHAI says, in the past ithas taken various initiatives from time to time to support Concessionaires, Contractors and Consultants,which also instilled confidence in the bidders of the Road sector. In March 2020, NHAI disbursed Rs. 10,000croresthrough online payments and ensured that no payments remain pending due to closure of officeduring the lock down.In the first quarter of current Financial Year, NHAI disbursedmore than Rs. 15,000 crores to the vendors. Additionally, steps such as monthly payments to thecontractors were takento ensure cash flow to the contractors. Such moderations resulted in spiraling effect on the growth of the road sector, it said.
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